woah, wait. just wait a second there. When did morph become a joke character like drinky and drohne?? Did I miss something? Damn!

Well, anecdotal evidence FTL and all, but I do not know a single person who'll get a PS3 a launch around here. Multiplatform guys don't want one, and even the Sony faithful, those who only got a PS2 the last time around, started playing on the PS1 and all that jazz - not interested at launch. €€€

Their havent been any pits here up north since Maggie shut em all down with Monty Mole and Scargill :D

You can walk into any high street shop still and preorder a PS3 for release day, you couldnt do that this close for PS2,Wii,Xbox360 so sorry it is just spin. Local stores around me say their will be plenty to go on the shelfs as their having hard difficulty shifting units due to the high prices (and their has been a minority cancelled since the back compatibilty story came out).

Myself I aint daft I bought a JPN one for much cheaper back erm months ago seems like years as its so long ;)

At last the PlayStation 3 is here, but is Sony’s latest worth a hefty £425? Nigel Kendall decides

On Friday, Sony declares war on the video game market with the launch of its new PlayStation 3. It should be the most exciting technology event of the year. Instead, it’s in danger of falling flat. So what went wrong?

In a word: Wii. The PS3 was originally scheduled to arrive here last November, but manufacturing difficulties led to the launch being postponed. This has allowed its arch-rival Nintendo to steal a march with the Wii console, which has been a sensation since it launched in November. The Wii, priced at £179, has put the fun back into gaming (if you can find one in stock — try www.wii-consoles.co.uk) and converted people who would never previously have considered owning a console.

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*rest at link*
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At the console’s launch in Tokyo last year, Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment’s worldwide studios, denied that the delay and price would be a problem: “We know that serious gamers will buy all consoles available. It’s an established pattern.”

This attitude typifies Sony’s attitude to its customers. Nor are the launch games very compelling. At the Japanese launch of the PS3, Ken Kutaragi, the “father” of the PlayStation, addressed this lack of innovation by developers. “We have been relying too heavily on easy-to-sell sequels, and our users have become passive,” he said. There’s no sign yet that anyone was listening.

At the console’s launch in Tokyo last year, Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment’s worldwide studios, denied that the delay and price would be a problem: “We know that serious gamers will buy all consoles available. It’s an established pattern.”

Just got that emailed today. Not looking good, Phil!

Honestly, I'm sure the PS3 will sell well at launch, but every time I read a quote from Sony regarding the PS3 it makes me will it to fail.

Yesterday evening I went preordering The GodFather for Wii and the EB Games employee checked the release date. He glanced over the monitor then emitted a painful groan. So I said "problems?" to which he answered "Uh it's coming out on PS3 day.. You are warned that there will be a LOT of people here that day and operations will be VERY slow as everybody will bring in their PS2 and games for credit."

I think I'll go there just for the show (and my copy of The GodFather of course). :D

Yesterday evening I went preordering The GodFather for Wii and the EB Games employee checked the release date. He glanced over the monitor then emitted a painful groan. So I said "problems?" to which he answered "Uh it's coming out on PS3 day.. You are warned that there will be a LOT of people here that day and operations will be VERY slow as everybody will bring in their PS2 and games for credit."

I think I'll go there just for the show (and my copy of The GodFather of course). :D

Of course he's assuming from past successful launches that there'll be lots of people there...

What's to damage control? Like was said early on in the thread -- that PR piece is contrary to what a lot of us are seeing.

I'm not soft enough to believe the PS3 will fail, or even that it won't be a massive success. But I do think this console's success is gonna be slow burning. It will take off eventually, but it's going to take time. That is just my personal perspective on things - what I expect.

PS3 is going to get all the usual pre-launch and launch PR you'd expect. Lots of fluffy quotes about interest and demand... and I'm sure lots of people are interested! I want one myself, but I'm not getting one because I can't afford one, and I've got my sisters wedding in Cyprus coming up (May 1-8). I've gotta save for that.

I've got a friend who's getting one very soon (and at a more affordable price) because he works for Sony Liverpool. And a buddy where I work is getting one. They're the only two people I know getting one. They're both already 360 and Wii owners... I *wish* I had that kinda money. I don't.

I think the best gauge of how they're doing will continue to be people from this forum and elsewhere telling you what they see in stores. If its PS3s in healthy supply on shelves a few weeks and months from now, then I won't be surprised. The ELSPA charts in the European sales threads won't lie either.

Oh and those staff-printed posters from GAME are appalling. GAME have sent out a memo reminding them it's not allowed IIRC.

yeah sure, as a consumer everyone wants to walk into a store and buy something they want, or at least know they realistically have that option. i mean, as a consumer, its good to see the PSP situation isn't repeating itself.

as a fan though, it's not the kind of situation you want to see as there's still something to be said for the psychology of a wanted item selling out, and you actually getting one of them or not.

yeah sure, as a consumer everyone wants to walk into a store and buy something they want, or at least know they realistically have that option. i mean, as a consumer, its good to see the PSP situation isn't repeating itself.

as a fan though, it's not the kind of situation you want to see as there's still something to be said for the psychology of a wanted item selling out, and you actually getting one of them or not.

I don't got off that much on having a device that's sold out, especially when it's staged or in such limited quantities that it doesn't really say much. I guess there's positive and negatives to each situation.

If the PS3 won't even sell out on launch it aint looking good for them. In one week from now we'll probably know more.

I think it depends on how many they have available at launch. If they do have millions of consoles available at launch, selling even 500,000 of those at launch is pretty impressive in my eyes considering the hefty price of the machine.

You'd think after the PSP and PS3 launches elsewhere, people wouldn't be so quick to proclaim "They'll sell as many as they can ship!"

I can't tell if you people actually think they can sell 1 - 1.5 million in a day/week when they've barely sold a million in either Japan or the US yet with available supply, or if you're just being tongue-in-cheek.

It won't sell out. There's a million+ consoles available at the price of 600euros.

Originally Posted by Shiggy

Sony won't make one million consoles available on day 1, that's the amount for the first four weeks, or as they say, the launch period.

I thought so too (although I'm not sure about the 4 weeks as the launch period is mostly a bit larger than that), so I don't think they'll have one million on day one in stores. So by going on that, if they don't sell out on launchday / first week... And the PS2 launched with a high supply AND a freaking high price in Europe too, and that didn't seem to matter at the time (for early adopters).

I thought so too (although I'm not sure about the 4 weeks as the launch period is mostly a bit larger than that), so I don't think they'll have one million on day one in stores. So by going on that, if they don't sell out on launchday / first week... And the PS2 launched with a high supply AND a freaking high price in Europe too, and that didn't seem to matter at the time (for early adopters).

Do you have any numbers on the PS2 launch?
According to some numbers I found, PS2 launched with 5k for Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg combined.

I don't see a reason for why Sony would feel the need to pile those consoles up in a storage somewhere. I think they want to flood the channel as fast as possible in Europe.

That wouldn't make sense as there's not such huge demand (due to the high price). As you might know, Sony would've already told us in a press release if they were making one million available on day 1. Just look at press releases from the NPD numbers, they're always using such euphemisms.

The people around me who are playstation fans won't be getting it, when i ask them why? the obvious price factor comes in to play. Most of those guys work for a living and can easily pay the price, but they don't think it's worth 600 euro's for a gaming console. I'm in the same boat actually, but will get it eventually(if i don't cave in:D ). I bought a 360 at launch(400euro's) and people around me said i was crazy.

The first shipment will sell out for sony but after that you'll see a deline in demand. The european economy isn't doing so well, i wish sony the best of luck though.